While the counselling was supposed to be a regular affair, with Covid-19 in view, the need for the same was more than before. A 55-year-old German serving a 10-year term in Gorakhpur district jail since November 2014 for carrying drugs is being repatriated to his country, an official said on Tuesday.
“The process to repatriate the German national has begun,” said Gorakhpur district jail Superintendent Ram Dhani. Bernd Manfred Littold, who was convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, will serve the remaining sentence in a jail in Germany.
Littold submitted the request for repatriation over three months ago. The letter was sent to the state government through the prison department.
The Repatriation of Prisoners Act was enacted to allow the transfer of certain prisoners from India to another country and the reception in India of certain prisoners from a country or place outside India. The Act is applied to people convicted by an Indian trial court.
Sources said the state government recently informed the jail administration about the start of the repatriation process.
According to prison records, Littold was caught with drugs at the India-Nepal border at Sonauli. The security guards handed him over to Maharajganj police, which lodged a case on November 1, 2014, at the Sonauli police station.
The German was produced in a local court, which sent him to judicial custody in Maharajganj district jail. A year later, Littold was transferred to the Gorakhpur jail following an administrative order.
A local court in Maharajganj sentenced Littold in December 2018, imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional six months of imprisonment. “The fine of Rs 1 lakh needs to be paid to the court before repatriation,” said a jail official.
